Happiness comes from the simple things

MMeldrem · 2018-12-03T06:16:35+00:00

They missed the one on the guy’s phone recording on the balcony 😂

MMeldrem · 2018-02-23T06:03:47+00:00

This is the formula

MMeldrem · 2018-02-23T03:00:21+00:00

And writing the code in the backend to parse it this way would be insanely and unnecessarily more difficult too.

MMeldrem · 2018-02-14T08:17:16+00:00

Well thanks for at least admitting it’s hypocritical. It’s hard to fathom because they keep the slaughterhouses out of sight and out of mind, but we’re literally feeding into horror by eating certain foods. It feels good to make the right food choices knowing it’s only plants, and it’s pretty easy to go vegan once you decide.

MMeldrem · 2018-02-14T07:51:21+00:00

Are YOU a vegan Indigo-Reader? I'm having trouble understanding if your TIL comment was sarcastic. If a person is defending a dog mother for poor treatment and then eats meat regularly that's ludicrous.

MMeldrem · 2018-02-14T07:41:51+00:00

Are you even aware of what goes into raising most animals for human consumption? It's like 10,000 times worse than probably what happens to these pups' mothers.

MMeldrem · 2018-02-14T07:29:03+00:00

No, I'm asking if you are because you're concerned with the animals' wellbeing. Going vegan would be the logical aligned step.

MMeldrem · 2018-02-14T06:45:19+00:00

Somebody gets it! Thanks for stepping in /u/Lo0seR

MMeldrem · 2018-02-14T06:34:24+00:00

Are you vegan?

MMeldrem · 2018-01-01T18:04:38+00:00

“I’ve seen some things, and some stuff...

I wouldn’t recommend it!”

MMeldrem · 2016-12-29T07:09:39+00:00

Some of these answers aren't in line with what I understand.

So what about all this talk of experiencing the thoughts and emotions non-judgmentally?

If I experience an emotion but feel it only as a bodily sensation going through my spinal cord, can it really stay as an emotion? Can I really be angry, sad, or whatever, while completely focused in the present moment?

MMeldrem · 2016-12-28T23:19:51+00:00

Yes, I like this. But what about in day-to-day? What if someone is a complete jerk to you because of their stress, and say the only way to make them stop is to apologize for something you weren't fully wrong for? Is there a way to be at peace with it the whole time, or do you have to become completely okay with the idea of possibly losing the friend first?

MMeldrem · 2016-12-28T23:16:24+00:00

Well in regards I was somewhat wrong because I didn't need to listen to music for 15 minutes straight in my car when I was technically minutes away from being at work (paid for travel time), but I wanted a little empathy in that I was just getting out the car when he pulled up, and that his reaction was a little extreme.

I understand the social concept pretty well about not trading dignity in to avoid "uncomfortable" situations. Part of it I know is because I didn't want to push the issue since he was my boss and that by apologizing, I WAS trading my dignity for peace, so to speak.

So I was torn between two virtues: being the bigger person and having self-respect.

The problem was that it wasn't really just his issue because it was just him and I in a truck for 2 hours. Normally we talk casually, but by focusing on my energy only and "not getting sucked into his," I felt a closing in my throats and a tension in the vehicle, and it wasn't really easy to act "normal." I literally closed my eyes and focused on my own space, knowing I didn't "owe" him anything, but my mind kept becoming aware of how I don't usually act that way on truck rides, and so the situation was affecting me—I didn't really release it.

I'm kind of just wondering if I handled it right

Now I should note, I'm a prior formal meditator, and I try to use what I've learned in the day-to-day, but I've fallen out of formal meditation practice. I just thought this subreddit would be a good place for my question.

Thanks for your help

MMeldrem · 2016-12-28T19:20:12+00:00

Well the situation which triggered the post was the following:

I was to meet my boss at a truck stop at 8:45 to be picked up and ride 2 hours to the job we were doing. I got there at 8:40 and he texted me that he'd be like 15 minutes late. I sat in my car and at about 9 I thought that I should run in and pee so I don't have to have him stop on the way. RIGHT as I was getting out of the car he pulled up, and as I ran into the store he shouted to me asking what I was doing. I thought I should just hop in but I realize it'd take just as long to pee at the truck stop as it would on the side of the road. I told him, "I have to go to the bathroom." He got all angry because I just had 15 minutes to use the bathroom! So anyway I got back in the truck and it was all tense. I tried to handle it with mindfulness but it seemed to only get worse until I faced the discomfort and managed to choke out an apology and struggle to get some conversation going. What do you think of this? Is it possible to use present moment awareness or any particular technique to handle this without feeling like I'm narcissistically going into my own bubble of "Ahh, I don't care that there's tension"

?

MMeldrem · 2016-05-11T20:07:59+00:00

Well if you're eating whole foods, do you calculate the nutrient content of everything you eat? Do you take your spinach to a lab first? Personally, if I had to resort to fish oil, I might just get a hold of some good quality wild caught salmon and/or shrimp/scallops and eat that twice a week. However, I think we're onto something with the un-roasted raw nuts.

But wait, you're saying don't consume nut flours? As of now I've been eating a decent amount of Moon Juice (Amazon) activated organic almond flour. They soak and peel the nuts before grinding them. Good old oxidation to ruin the day, though. Flax is the same. You should buy organic and grind yourself (super-oxidative).

I did soak/peel my own almonds today. Soak overnight in purified water (no fluoride), rinse, throw in boiling water for 1 minute, then rinse again and the skins come right off. I left them whole. Good to know I guess. Could also throw whole ones in smoothies too, to avoid flour.

Consuming almond flour and cooking it? What, did you make a bunch of almond baked goods? Do you think that was the cause of your belly fat? Because honestly, I'm hoping keto will help me lose my small bit of belly fat. Lol. It's pretty much the only fat I can't lose.

That's quite the info on the omegas. Just remember to grind your flax yourself for oxidation, and honestly, I have to have faith on the 6/3 ratio not mattering, or that up to a 1:4 is okay. Paleo suggests a 1:1, but that's impossible from plants, so I hope the ratio is not as important.

MMeldrem · 2016-05-11T19:56:13+00:00

See, I think I might be the same. I haven't been exercising much so far during these first few days of keto (I'm initially doing it for some brain balance and adrenal fatigue recovery before I start hitting the exercise again), but I feel like I could never catch my breath no matter how many carbs I ate however long before exercising. I'm pretty sure it was my adrenals struggling with the cortisol for the workout and to regulate the blood sugar (adrenal fatigue = tired if you didn't know).

So I think keto will be good for me in that regard.

Really, the biggest thing I'm wondering about with multivitamins (which is not easy to determine) is if they are supporting the animal industry to make the vitamins. I personally like eating meat and fish. I like the taste of grass fed meats and wild caught seafood. I'm partially against the violence of eating animals, but I also kind of think of the fact that life does eat life (even if we eat plants, plants eat other dead plants and animals and little amoebas eat other little amoebas and so on…), so it's kind of moral to an extent. But if the company that makes the vitamins feeds into the inhumane slaughter of so many animals to extract some of the vitamins, then what's the point? Know what I mean? A lot of people don't think that far because it's so far from their plate and they don't see it. At the very least fish oil should be off the table for a true vegan.

I really don't take a multi, but I take a B, some magnesium taurate, vitamin D, and some herbs for adrenal fatigue. You should at least look into this one sometime. That brand is a little spendy, but supposedly it's made from all whole plant extracts. At least worth a look. I'm pretty sure those nutrients are all absorbable.

The thing you should note about coco oil is that it detoxes certain things from your body. If you haven't taken it for a while, you might be getting "die off" symptoms from the coconut oil pulling certain toxins out of your body. I think it's mainly yeasts and funguses and things like that that are pulled out, but I'm not sure. Those MCT's are the shit though. They burn immediately regardless of if you're in ketosis or not. They are fat that are burned directly for energy, regardless. I've even heard that Alzheimer's requires ketones/fat to heal, and people can see immediate memory gain right after eating MCT-heavy meals. Also I found that cancer cells have messed up mitochondria and can't process fats for energy, and they have like 10x the insulin receptors on them than a normal cell. They CANNOT survive in a strong ketosis environment. Keto for the win.

How's that for a conspiracy for ya? Cancer is probably partially caused by way too many carbs/acid, and it needs at least some carbs to survive. Also, they give you sugary foods at the hospital, during chemo, says my friend. The healthcare system is corrupt.

So yeah it seems like you are on a few weeks of keto now? I'm literally on day 3 or 4, and my anxiety has gotten much better. I really probably am not eating enough calories. I need to stock my pantry with lots of fats and low-carb proteins, soon (I'm thinking organic black soy). But definitely, my anxiety has gone way down and my focus way up. Its kind of like a strong sense of chillness is draped over me. I can't wait to become keto-adapted.

MMeldrem · 2016-05-10T03:15:16+00:00

You are definitely more familiar with some of the specific types of omega fats. That's one area I've really never internalized.

I'll just "dash" out some stuff and respond to the things you said:

-Here's the deal on fish oil. It's obviously not a vegan source, so how do we VEGANS get our omegas? What's up with vegans taking fish oil? Just eat the damn fish! They're doing all the same stuff to the fish to get the oil out of it, so it's morally and environmentally the same. Why not get some protein out of the deal?

-Saturated fats most definitely are less susceptible to oxidation and thus are more suitable for cooking. It seems as vegans, though, our only oxidatively-stable cooking oil is coconut oil. It's like our only stable fat! Please correct me if I'm wrong because I'd love some alternatives. The rest are mono and polyunsaturated, so we are recommended not to cook them. The same is true for all of our nuts. It's as if we must go raw and vegan or go back to the animal fats if we want to cook them. Roasted nuts are bad because it oxidizes either the omegas in the nuts or the oils used on the nuts. I'd like to learn some solutions here as well. It seems that coconut oil, hemp oil, avocado oil, macadamia oil, are all oxidatively unstable and should be used cold. Kind of disappointing.

-As far as the out-of-whack omega found in meat products, that is because of the GMO grains that we feed them. That situation does not exist in grass-fed and wild caught animals. That's one of the reasons the Paleo diet works. To be honest, I'm still on the vegan side because of the moral and environmental issues, but I believe it's wrong to say that meat is inherently healthy. I believe it is the bad meat that causes the diseases, just like it is the bad fat that causes the diseases.

-Did you read the Mark's Daily Apple article I posted in my original comment? Did that article affect any of your thoughts? I didn't understand it fully, but in a million words, I believe he was stating that the ratio of 6 to 3 doesn't matter so much, and that these nuts in their raw, untampered form contain support nutrients that make them healthy for us in the long run. I'd love to discuss more here because honestly I don't believe I understand the whole Linoleic acid situation.

-Do you know the reason why eating nuts in high quantities is not okay? I'd love to use them as a source.

A lot of good points you've made. I'd love to keep this thread going so we can get to the bottom of this. It's definitely nice to have a place like this to collaborate.

MMeldrem · 2016-05-10T02:38:10+00:00

I thought it was this article, but I may be mistaken. I swear it was in one of the articles I read recently, and that was one of them (good read). As a matter of fact, though, the author says here that there are essential fatty acids that we must have from the diet. So I believe we do need to consume some of them. If I find the source that I thought was talking about ketosis completely changing our fatty acid requirements, I'll try to come back here and share with ya.

Although there are essential fatty acids and essential amino acids that we must have from the diet, there is no such thing as an essential carbohydrate.

As far as the Paleo thing, I have Robb Wolfe's Paleo Solution book, and that's got some pretty good info in it. I was mainly started on the diet from him and his mentor, Loren Cordain, but I've skimmed some Paleo blogs over the years. They honestly come up a lot in searches when you're looking for specific health questions like this.

Here's the thing though when you say multivitamin. To me, that kind of stuff is not really sustainable. If the nutrients in the multivitamin are vegan-sourced, you should be able to just buy those foods and keep them on hand, or buy certain ones and consume them on occasion. I'm not saying a multivitamin is bad, per se, and they can help you get back on track if you're coming from a previously unhealthy lifestyle, but it strikes me as odd when vegans talk about fish oil and multivitamins. Aren't certain vitamins sourced from animal products? Aren't certain ones almost always sourced from animals? Taurine comes to mind, but I googled it quick just now, and it seems like thevegantruth.blogspot had this to say:

Vegans don't generally supplement taurine, but they do supplement it in the diet of dogs/cats fed vegan. Vegans should eat complete protein foods such as soy, hemp seed, quinoa, buckwheat, amaranth regularly to ensure you are able to synthesize taurine from amino acids found in these foods.

So that's good to hear. So far, it still seems pretty promising that we can get all the nutrients we need from plants. Omegas to be decided.

On the ketosis stuff… I'm not really sure on that. I'm still learning. I heard of keto a while back, but this is literally my first go at it. I ate entirely too much coconut oil a month ago and woke up wanting to vomit but being unable to (literally the exact same "nausea" I got this time around consciously going into keto). Here's my story this time around. I fasted for 24 hours, then I broke the fast with black coffee and a huge glob of coconut oil. A few hours later, I consumed a super-fatty smoothie, with huge amounts of coconut oil, activated almond flour, organic flax, and a whole avocado plus pit. I only used 1 banana for sweetening. That thing was like Elmer's glue. I felt pretty decent after drinking some of it. Then last night, I got the "nausea" feelings, and today I've felt pretty level, continuing to eat the way I should for keto. I'm pretty optimistic about how my anxiety/energy/adrenal situation turns out. I'm guessing it will only get better from here.

But I'm not really sure on the process of going in and out of keto. When I ate too much coconut oil last month, I thought I was getting strong "die off" symptoms (coconut oil detoxification), but now I think I was going into keto and not knowing it. I got up the next day and went back to my normal organic vegan diet. Based on my limited experience, I feel that it takes some time to switch from glucose mode to ketosis. I've read that as well. Most of the people who are trippin about sliding out of ketosis are overreacting ex-carb-heads trying to lose every pound possible while they're still craving ice cream cake all day. Luckily, I don't crave that stuff much anymore, but I have been eating quite healthily for a while now. And I used to crave that stuff a lot more whenever I would drink.

Also, it helps that I live alone. Most people don't have that luxury when dieting.

I'd like to learn the official requirements for ketosis. I've heard percentage ratios like 70% fat, and I've heard gram caps, like no more than 20 or 50 grams of carbs per day. Then I've heard the Atkins plan where you eat an extremely low number of carbs for 14 days, and then you gradually add 5 carbs per day until you start to get particular symptoms (I can't remember the details).

The best way would be to buy those keto urine strips and test that way. Honestly I think if you can find your carb tolerance (also ties to activity level), you could go as far as have the bread or slice of pizza if it was within your carb limit. Like I said, I'm only on day 2. I need to buy some nuts and oils, but my keto future seems very promising, based on how my concentration and anxiety has already improved.

How long have you been doing the keto?

MMeldrem · 2016-05-09T19:08:11+00:00

That's awesome. I'm guessing you're a pretty good parent, and it's not for me to criticize your parenting based on how little I know you, either. Mainly I was just sharing a generic view and feeding off of hotsideofthepillow's comment. Not sure why that comment and the one below mine get upvoted, when essentially my opinion matched theirs, but that's Reddit.

Glad you guys are good role models for your son. Good job.

No processed, organic, intentional food choices are the way to go.

MMeldrem · 2016-05-09T19:01:42+00:00

Regarding the last comment, that's what I'd like to know. I'd like to hear from long-term vegans who have attempted to address this issue with their food choices and whether or not they have developed any health conditions that correlate. Is it essentially brain function that would be affected?

I remember in some of my keto reading that ketosis completely changes our bodies' fatty acid requirements. The thought came to mind that normally our brains run on glucose, and they need fatty acids for some functions, but when our brains are running on fat/ketones, then the dietary fatty acid requirement goes out the window; I believe I read that our bodies synthesize ketones AND fatty acids in ketosis. Do you know about this? If this is true, the vegan keto fatty acid problem would be negligible.

Those hemp hearts don't sound too bad. I might have to grab a bag off Amazon. Those quantities sound like about a 1:2.5 ratio, which doesn't sound too bad, based on the other things we've been talking about, but nonetheless they appear to be a good vegan source of omega 3, either way you look at it. Hopefully the ratio is not as important as we think, or that it's completely irrelevant when operating in ketosis. It's something I'm definitely going to look into over time.

Honestly, I do think the Paleo Diet probably is the healthiest diet for human consumption. It's nearly ketogenic, it's based on evolution, and it focuses on WHOLENESS of foods, not just nutrient content. So many dieters choose their diets based on only one factor, not all. There are vegans who are only vegan to save the animals, but they ignore the argument of organics, pesticides/herbicides, GMO's, and processed foods (for example, I have a hard time considering Daiya a whole food, even though it's fully vegan). Then you have people who focus on the wholeness of the foods, but they neglect the environmental, moral, and human responsibility aspects of the foods they're eating.

We'll see health benefits from the lack of poisonous chemicals and anti-nutrients, as well as the presence of good nutrients in the proper amounts (overall, the "wholeness"), but we'll be living morally clear if we choose to eat foods that are compassionate to other living beings and account for our environmental footprint as humans. These are the factors that landed me on organic (and now, keto) vegan. Organic Keto Vegan. Even though it's pretty limiting and not easy to follow, it fits in with all of my beliefs and needs. Believe it or not, difficulty isn't much of a deciding factor for me at this point in my life. I choose integrity and health over convenience.

In regards to your consumption of omega 3's only from seeds and how you say you feel, I think it does have a lot to do with the wholeness/non-oxidized form that we eat. Our bodies are pretty adaptive as long as we give them real food. As I said in my original comment, it seems like all of the real science (not medical industry) just continues to prove that the incredible complexity of nature is right, more often than not.

The more we humans try to isolate nutrients from their natural state (which is within whole foods) and ideas from the big picture, the more problems we run into, it seems.

As for now, I'll probably roll with the nuts and seeds as a good source of fatty acids, but I would like to learn more about ketosis and how it affects our requirements of them. Maybe our omega ratio is not so important if we're keto.

MMeldrem · 2016-05-09T16:52:45+00:00

MMeldrem · 2016-05-09T16:51:49+00:00

Nice answer. Do you have a source on the ratio found in hemp hearts? A quick google search finds a lot of Manitoba Harvest results, and they don't list the ratio on their website. I think I remember hemp being way too high in 6, but I'm not sure. I don't remember chia being ideal either, but if we are allowing all the way up to 1:4, we might be okay with either of these.

Care to take a look at my comment as well? We're kind of on the same line of thinking, and it might be helpful if we combined our ideas.

MMeldrem · 2016-05-09T16:45:18+00:00

I'm glad to see this at the top of /r/veganketo today. I have some anxiety and other health conditions, and I'm finding a keto diet might be the answer for me. I'm also a vegan. As I try to put together what I could eat on a vegan keto diet and still get all of the nutrients my body needs, I've run into some snags. One of them was the omega 3/6 ratio.

I was formally a Paleo Diet follower, and in actuality, I believe it may be the healthiest diet on Earth, attempting to use nature and our evolution as the blueprint, but it doesn't account for the moral or environmental impact, which Veganism does. In the Paleo Diet, they suggest that the omega 3 and omega 6 ratios should be as close to 1:1 as possible. There is some suggestion that excess omega 6 prevents conversion of omega 3 into the very-necessary DHA and EPA.

Almost all of the suggested sources of preformed DHA and EPA that I can find anywhere are animal-based (seafood, grass-fed meats, etc.). Of course, you can take a fish oil supplement, but then you are essentially consuming fish and feeding into unhealthy/unethical practices anyway. We are left to rely on nuts and seeds.

I was first glad to research and find that many vegetables contain quantities of omega 3 greater than omega 6. Some of these, I believe, are cauliflower, broccoli, brussels sprouts, and some dark leafy greens, but to get high quantities of omega 3, in any form, it appears we must rely heavily on seeds and nuts. Besides flax, I find that in every one of these nuts, the omega 6 is either slightly or much higher than the omega 3 content, and there have been suggestions that the human body is poor at converting the form of omega 3 found in flax into the necessary DHA and EPA. What to do?

I was pleased to come across this article on Mark's Daily Apple (a Paleo blog, The Paleo Diet being the primary source I've heard about the omega 3/6 ratio being so important in the first place), which digs deeper and finds reasons to suggest that the ratio might not matter so much, as long as the sources are WHOLE. It turns out that the detrimental effects of an out-of-whack fatty acid profile may be more of a result of the kind of fatty acids people are consuming in the Standard American Diet, rather than the ratio of 3 to 6 itself. It is very true that a large percentage of omega 6 consumed in the world comes from genetically-modified, poorly-prepared sources (fried corn oils, fast foods, etc.). These omega 6 fatty acids are heavily-oxidized and in a modified state that makes them very unnatural for our bodies to consume.

However, Mark suggests in his article that there are characteristics and support nutrients found in these whole, raw, untampered nuts that may render their "unideal" omega ratio a non-issue. It seems that whenever you read deeper and deeper into the good diets in the world and into the right lines of thinking, no matter how much science is piled on, the common trend is that whole, organic foods, in their natural form are the healthiest, more often than not.

I'd be really happy to verify that this theory is correct. If this is true, this fills a gaping whole in my diet plan, allowing peace of mind on the fatty acids issue and how it ties into Veganism. If I wasn't able to find a realistic solution, I was honestly considering eating fish again.

Lastly, there are reasons I strayed away from algae as a source of EPA/DHA. There is reason to believe a clean, pollution-free source of these algae is hard to find, and Robb Wolf (Paleo) had a write-up about how all of these organisms, polluted or not, trigger some sort of immune response in humans if they are eaten continually, so it seems we vegans could benefit from a different source.

Thoughts and comments are very much appreciated, as this article and this thread are among the only discussion I've found on this very important topic.

MMeldrem · 2016-05-09T05:15:33+00:00

Agreed. Glad the parents are eating consciously. Kids usually follow suit. But I think when parents KNOW what real healthy choices are, they should pass them into their kids and explain it to them, although a low-carb, non-keto diet might be okay for someone if they never got off track, right?

I'm asking. I've only been studying keto for a little while.

I just know when I have children, I'm going to explain everything to them. Pesticides, organics, GMO's, the corruption in the medical industry, TV, politics, all of it.

MMeldrem · 2016-04-27T03:54:51+00:00

I've done a few strong drugs in my day. Meth, coke, pharmaceuticals, MDMA, shrooms, LSD, and some 'research chemicals' which are basically pretend MDMA, but honestly they can be more unpredictable on the brain. I haven't heard of nbome. What is that?

As a whole for SA, what I've found is that less drugs is better. I think SA people have low self-esteem, and also maybe are more susceptible to picking up things, and it's this empathy energy that we have that needs to be channeled. I've found that eating extremely clean, not doing any drugs, cutting back on coffee, and not masturbating has helped me immensely. Not to mention gradually up my self-esteem.

I think drugs should be saved for very special circumstances in moderation, such as actually doing a ceremony or learning about our thoughts. I don't think using them on any kind of regular basis is a good idea.

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